What’s on this week
As the title of the book suggests, this is all about victorious machines – and every car to win a Formula 1 World Championship race is drawn in brilliant detail, from the Alfa Romeo 158 that Giuseppe Farina used to take the flag in the 1950 British Grand Prix, through to the Racing Point RP20 that Sergio Perez drove in the 2020 Sakhir GP.
No corners have been cut here, as artist and motorsport enthusiast Mick Hill has painstakingly hand-drawn each machine.
Every detail, from the smallest of sponsor decals to the intricate flicks and swishes of the bodywork, has been included. Hill’s images pop off the page with bright, vibrant colours.
With each car shown in a side-on view, turning the pages offers a perfect demonstration of how the cars have developed over the decades, with the introduction of wings, greater cockpit protection, and a general increase in size the most obvious differences. Even during the same year there are interesting comparisons, such as with the Ferrari F310 and subsequent high-nosed F310/2 that were both used during the 1996 season.
Included with each car are details such as the designers and key personnel, engine and tyre suppliers, and how many poles, fastest laps and race wins it achieved. There’s also a breakdown of how each winning driver performed with that iteration of chassis through the season to give an overview of the campaign. Each chapter is broken up by decade, with a brief synopsis of the major events from the intervening 10 years such as the FOCA/FISA battle of the early 1980s, to the death of Ayrton Senna in the
1990s and general technical innovations of the period.
It’s not a comprehensive guide to the championship – after all, only cars that have been driven to the top step of the podium are included. As Hill points out though at the start, he’s an “artist and not a writer” and that “there are plenty of such books” that recount every minor detail from every event over the past 70 years.
Without doubt the highlight of the book are the double-page cutaways of the Lotus 79 that Mario Andretti guided to the F1 title in 1978 and the Lotus 97T with which Ayrton Senna took his maiden F1 win at the Portuguese GP in 1985. The level of detail is brilliant, and the only shame is that one is not included in every decade throughout the book, quite possibly because Hill was unable to get access to other machines and therefore unable to provide an extensive breakdown.
It’s not just cars that are included, and at the back of the book there is a section on racing headgear used by the drivers, from the cork helmets of the 1950s to the sophisticated lids worn today.
The way the helmets have been laid out, however, is from the front, with an almost mirror image on each side. It’s understandable why this decision was made in order to showcase the entire helmet and the flashy designs that have now become the norm, but it doesn’t quite work in a printed format, and a side-on view like that used to
display the cars could probably have worked better.
There are also several pages devoted to fantastic illustrations of stickers from the last 70 years, which will be nostalgic for motorsport fans of any age.
Putting our anoraks on, could we have a book now featuring useable stickers?
There’s also a page detailing those who have died during a race meeting, including spectators and marshals, while the forward has been written by five-time grand prix winner John Watson.
Hill set out to make a book that was “interesting, clear and precise”, which is exactly what he’s achieved, and it would make a fine addition to any motorsport collection.